Is this real life? Last night the Knicks defeated the Philadelphia Seventy-sixers with a final score of 82-79. It was a hard fought defensive win on the road. It is the Knicks fifth win in a row and they are 5-0 under head coach Mike Woodson. It's really remarkable. Was D'Antoni this much of a problem for the Knicks?
The answer may be a conclusive yes. The Knicks are on a five game winning streak following his departure, that's as black and white as it gets. But there was a lot of drama in the Knicks organization clearly distracting the team that wasn't all D'Antoni's fault. The drama goes back percisely a year ago where the authority of James Dolan surpassed the opinion of Knicks then head coach Mike D'Antoni, and then general manager Donnie Walsh. They did not support the Melo trade, especially because Carmelo was going to be a free agent following the end of the season. Dolan supported the trade for the fact that no one was sure what would happen after the lockout over the summer, and that the Knicks didn't acquire as much as they had hoped for in the summer free agency of 2010. So the Knicks went ahead and pulled the trigger despite D'Antoni and Walsh's opinion, and likely gave up way too much for him. The Knicks gave away Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Timofey Mozgov, Raymond Felton, a 2014 draft pick and in return got Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups. The Knicks also got rent-a-players like Shelden Williams, Anthony Carter, and Renaldo Balkman because it was a three way trade including Golden State to balance the cap space.
That was a huge trade. Especially because now it is clear all the other players the Knicks got weren't even important. It was all just to get Carmelo Anthony. What could Mike D'Antoni have thought after that trade? Mike came to New York to run his West coast run 'n gun offense because the Knicks had been weak defensively for a while, and frankly were undersized. The Knicks drafted Gallinari under D'Antoni's tenure not only because he is a brilliant shooter, but because D'Antoni was Gallinari's fathers roommate when they played basketball together in Italy. Then they traded him away. Not to mention Raymond Felton, who's career was revitalized when he came to New York. He ran D'Antoni's system brilliantly with Stoudemire on the high pick and roll. It was a big part of Stoudemire's early reign of terror in the big apple. Basically, the Knicks traded several players that Mike D'Antoni was rather fond of for Carmelo Anthony.
Then the entire world had stopped. The Knicks got a superstar, the Knicks got a superstar! Commercials on MSG had people believing it was Carmelo Anthony's destiny to come to New York. Yes there were some exciting wins but it all resulted in a sweep against the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs. The Knicks playoff drought continued. The following year the Knicks acquired Tyson Chandler, but it wasn't clear who their point guard was going to be. The head coach was still Mike D'Antoni, and the guy didn't even have a legitimate point guard. The nucleus of players was changing to something Mike did not know how to coach. This had to cause tensions to rise.
In Feburuary the Knicks STILL hadn't gotten it going. The Garden crowd was getting restless. Melo was injured and Amar'e couldn't be with the team. It was hopeless. But then came Jeremy Lin, a kid who finally got his chance. So what does a kid do that hasn't had much experience and finally gets a chance? He listens to the coach. Jeremy Lin came in and ran the Mike D'Antoni system that he loves so dearly. And everybody knows the rest. Linsanity took over, the Knicks won seven games in a row. But upon Melo's return to the lineup, the Knicks lost six in a row, and D'Antoni left with what they called a "mutual resignation."
So why are the Knicks good now? There is a very interesting quote from the postgame against the Raptors on Tuesday night from Melo. He was asked about why there is such an improvement in his game under Woodson, "I think in the last three games, my focus was just having energy that I haven't had for this season, especially on the defensive end. Everybody on this team, and everybody in the world, knows I can score the basketball, so it's not that important to me. As far as on the defensive end, I'm just showing my teammates that the effort is there, giving that extra effort, and as a result, everybody's been feeding off of that."
Not only are his choice of words overwhelmingly stupid, he's making some implications that his focus was their defensively now, but not before. Why? A "superstar" just forgets how to play defense? There was some serious drama between Melo and D'Antoni that was effecting the entire team. They didn't like each other at all. Why should they? Melo would deliberately remove himself from team huddles. Neither of them wanted the other to be there. It's conclusive that perhaps Melo wanted D'Antoni to get fired. Melo was unhappy, and he's used to getting everything he wants, when he wants it. It's also interpretted from that one quote that Carmelo's ego is through the roof, and he believes that the team is "feeding off of" his intensity. That quote flat out explains that Melo is self-centered, and his feud with Mike D'Antoni was a problem to the entire team.
This is conclusive from speculation, but it seems somewhat obvious. How else can the Knicks go from good, to bad, to good again. There simply has to be more going on that people weren't entirely aware of. But the ultimate thing here is that the Knicks are winning again. Melo may not be able to see it, but they're doing it as a team. It is not fair the way Mike D'Antoni was treated in New York, but Mike Woodson seems like a better fit for the job so far. Woodson preaches defensive intensity constantly, something Knicks fans take a lot of pride in. The Knicks defense has been much better, and frankly the most important cause of their recent winning streak.
How far can the Knicks go under Woodson? Can they make that playoff push, and maybe even win the division? Can they sweep the recent hostilities under the rug and continue to play ball? Time will tell. Right now you're seeing the Knicks best team basketball of the season. They need to keep it up. Because 23-24 is not good enough for the amount of talent on this team. It's certainly time to put up or shut up for Melo, but more importantly the entire team has been playing well.
Go Knicks. Hopefully this locker room turmoil is over, but time will tell.
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